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Monday, February 17, 2014

Coal Burning Stove: AFL gives players chance to prove themselves

Since playing its first game in 1987, the Arena Football
League has become a middle ground for those looking to continue their football
careers after college.

This season, you may get to see more of some of your
favorite Mountaineers on the field in an AFL game.

Yes, the game may be played with a different set of rules.
But who says different is bad?

Current AFL players such as Jarrett Brown, Julian Miller, Kent
Richardson and Larry Ford have found homes in hopes to revitalize their careers
and to simply continue playing the game. Brown plays with the Spokane Shock,
Miller with the Cleveland Gladiators, Richardson with the Jacksonville Sharks
and Ford currently sits as a free agent.

Until the late 1980’s, the NFL was the only chance a college
player had at continuing their craft in the United States. If that failed, you
could always go to Canada and play in the Canadian Football League. But for
those who didn't want to leave the country, small-time college players had
little hope of life after college ball.

And then the Arena Football league came along.

The AFL gave talented athletes a second chance. A chance at
getting noticed. A chance at building a

resume. A chance to keep playing.

Sure, most AFL players don’t make it to the NFL and become
stars. But there’s a chance. Just ask Kurt Warner.

Yes, THAT Kurt Warner. He has many identifiers. You might
use these in front of or after his name:

4-time Pro Bowler

2-time Associated Press First-Team All –Pro

3-time NFL MVP (2-time AP NFL MVP)

Super Bowl XXXIV MVP

Super Bowl Champion

Walter Payton Man of the Year

Bart Starr Man of the Year

Iowa Barnstormers Hall of Famer.

Wait. What? Yes, I bet that last one threw you off just a
bit.

After being undrafted in 1994, Warner failed to make the
Green Bay Packers’ squad over Brett Favre, Mark Brunell and Ty Detmer. Instead,
Warner went to the AFL.

Warner spent the 1996 and 1997 season in a Barnstormers
uniform, leading them to the Arena Bowl in both seasons. By the end of the ’97 season,
Warner was already considered the 12th best player in the history of
the AFL after throwing for 10, 465 yards and 43 touchdowns.

Three years later, the AFL introduced a video game named
after him entitled “Kurt Warner’s Arena Football Unleashed.” And in 2011,
Warner was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame.

With the AFL season set to begin in just under a month,
Brown, Miller, Richardson and Ford will look to make their own cases just as
Warner did over a decade ago.